


basement boys

by orphan_account



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Dancing, Divorced parents, Gen, Mentions of Death, Neglect, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking, mentions of homophobia but no active attacks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:40:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22915648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: disclaimers:mentions of abuse, homophobia, drug addiction, neglect, etcunderage drinkingdrug useangstect idfk
Relationships: no ships - Relationship
Kudos: 6





	basement boys

think about this,

your dad works for a company, he's the ceo of the company. and your brother has a job in the company but you fuck it all up by one mistake and get him fired. You sit there in the living room. sitting there next to you is your brother, hes getting scolded by your dad. You look at him. He sat there straight faced as his adams apple goes up and down as he gulps. You do the same but there was a strange feeling in your throat. it kind of hurt and it was hard to breathe, It felt like there was a lump in your throat. you spaced out for a bit and your brother was done being scolded. you open your mouth to say something but he leaves upstairs. you turn your head and you follow him going upstairs with your eyes. soon later you go to his room and he says hes moving out. the tension of the room was awkward and you ask him where hes moving to and he said "you'll see". you look up at him and ask if you can come with him and he replies "i said you'll see" he balled up all his clothes and stuffed them into suitcases. you ran to your room and did the same.

now consider this,

your brothers friend is his best friend of 10 years. he's smart, sympathetic, very educated, and nice to everyone. hes the kind of best friend that would always have your back. the type of friend that would let you spend 5 months sleeping on the floor of his bedroom when your parents kick you out of their house. which exactly happened to my brother and i just tagged along. he's the kind of best friend that has never forgotten your birthday and would buy you a gift every single year. the kind of best friend that you would see as a brother. the kind of best friend your parents even included into the family. the kind of best friend that would stay up late with you to help you study for an important test because he was fucking smart.

its been like this for 2 weeks now it kind of surprised me because our dad still paid for our stuff. for example; our phone bills and college tuitions. i never mentioned, i went to college 3 years early. kind of like my brothers best friend did but he went in a year early. i guess you can say i'm a child prodigy but i'll disagree otherwise.

i always looked up to my brother ever since we were little. he basically took care of me for the first 5 years i was born. our mom and dad were busy with their business they never had time for us.

and here i am. laying on a cold bedroom floor staring at an electrical socket.

consider this, you feel emptiness in your chest and mind.

you sort of remember this feeling.

it felt like the same feeling from your mothers death.

on the TV it played a TV show marathon as everyone argued over what they wanted to watch. a disney movie, most likely beauty and beast, was an acceptable substitute for this as it was sicheng's favorite genre. hot cheeto crumbs, pizza, cans of soda, beer bottles, whatever junk food you can buy from your local convenience store. decorated the carpet floor of the basement as everyone fought their sleep. who ever fell asleep first had to pay for everyones lunch the next day. just like how me, johnny, and sicheng did when we were younger. its been sort of a tradition now even though some new people were added to it and some new minor changes.

the new faces i didn't recognise were different than what they looked like. there was; jungwoo, a soft hearted person who tries to understand how everyone was feeling. doyoung, he is very independent and sympathetic towards the ones he care about the most. jaehyun, a helpless romantic boy who always saw his dreams becoming a reality. and one of them was missing his name was yuta, a japanese boy who always saw himself becoming a future rockstar and also kind of had a smoking problem, he was supposed to bring the pizza.

he was 30 minutes late.

"where the fuck is that dumb ass at? i called him billions of times and still hasn't answered." johnny asked. he went upstairs and peaked through the blinds in the living room to see where the japanese boy was. a beam of light from the street lamps came towards his face as he stared at the cracked concrete from the street. "johnny we haven't seen him since you graduated high school. the least the man can do was show up on time" sichengs voice sounded muffled at first but then came clear once they were going back downstairs.

"he probably missed the bus or something" i said looking back at the both of them. i layed across from them on sicheng's bean bag that hes had from when we were younger. they both looked at each other and shrugged.

"he better have a broken leg or be dying if hes taking this long. those are the only excuses i will take." sicheng crossed his arms and mumbled.

"i mean i guess so" i rested my head on the palm of my hand.

we ended up watching a movie until we heard knocking on the door. we looked at each other. "it better be fucking yuta or else im not answering it." sicheng got up to get the door. he opened it and it was yuta. but one thing that wouldn't stay the same was the amount of people.

none of us had recalled yuta bringing someone with him.

his name was jaemin he was about the same age as me but a year older. he was 17.

"sorry for being late- hey johnny you got a lighter?" yuta asked.

"really? that's the first you say to me after we haven't seen each other in years?"

yuta looked around and couldn't come up with words.

johnny told him he was joking and dug through his pockets he couldn't find one.

"sicheng your parents have a lighter somewhere around here right?" johnny asked sicheng.

he shrugged and began looking around until one of them found one.

sicheng found one in one of the cabinets in the hallway to his bedroom and tossed it to yuta.

he caught it with one hand, he smiled at the familiar weight on his palm.

"i thought molly died?" yuta looked at the lighter in his hand he smiled and looked back at sicheng.

"she ran out of lighter fluid and i refilled her."

"she still works as if she was good as new." he lit up a cigarette.

i was confused... who's molly?

"jaemin, these are the friends i was telling you about" yuta wrapped an arm around him and pointed at sicheng. "thats-"

jaemin interrupted him, "wait i wanna guess by myself" he placed the bags of two 2 liter bottles of pepsi on the table. he rubbed his hands together from the cold and sat down on the couch causing the couch to sink more from weight.

yuta looked around again once more and recognised the whole place.

"you rearranged this place didn't you?" he looked at the pictures of him, sicheng, and johnny and smiled. it seemed like nostalgia was hitting him.

yuta looked at me and his face brightened. "oh my god johnny..." he said through a smile.

if i was being honest, his smile was contagious. i couldn't stop smiling because of him.

"yes yuta?" my brother replied

"is this jisung?" he asked. how did he know my name?

johnny nodded and yuta grabbed my face. his hands were rough but soft. sort of felt like hands from a dad who overworks himself.

i couldn't move my head from how hard yuta was grabbing my face but i moved my eyes around the room and from the corner of my eye i saw the boy he brought with him.

his name was na jaemin. he wore a black varsity jacket, the same one yuta had, his cheeks were tainted rosie pink from the cold, and his hair was sort of messy but nice at the same time. he was pretty to be honest.

he caught me staring at him.

"um... oh yeah!" jaemin started. he seemed nervous. "sorry if we we're late there was a really long line at the pizza place we went to so we got something else instead..." jaemin apologised for him and yuta.

"couldn't you go to another pizza place?" jaehyun asked

"im not familiar with pizza places here." jaemin looked down at his shoes. one lace was longer than the other.

jaehyun's eyebrow shot up.

yuta punched him on the shoulder. "hes new here cut him some slack."

"i didn't say shit." jaehyun hissed from the punch.

"your face said it all," yuta looked at jaehyun and examined his face as something was different. his eyes widened and grabbed jaehyun's jaw. "since when did you have a nose piercing, jaehyun?"

"i got it two days ago," yuta let go of jaehyun's jaw and jaehyun smirked "you like it?"

"it makes you look like a gay magic mike performer"

"thanks, it gets me more attention from girls"

"okay simp." yuta laughed and hugged jaehyun. "i missed you"

"we missed you more asshole" johnny also hugged yuta.

"there's so much love right now" sicheng jokingly gagged. he snuck behind yuta and johnny and wrapped his arms around them. johnny tried to shove his arm off but there was no force movement. yuta felt welcomed and leaned into the hug.

i laughed and watched from a distance. who knew watching people reunite with each other would be so heartwarming.

jaemin gasped which broke the group. "i know now."

the group looked at jaemin. his jacket was off as it was neatly folded on the couch. he wore a white tee that was clean and stainless and looked completely out of place in sicheng's basement with its stale pizza crust all over the floor, bottles of half full flat soda, and beer bottles on the floor and coffee table. jaemin pointed at jaehyun first. "you're jaehyun because you act like a simp"

"fuck you, that's what you told him about me," jaehyun pushed yuta. yuta laughed.

"and you're bunny boy doyoung" jaemin said while pointing at doyoung

"he really had to tell you that?" doyoung's nose scrunched up. it reminded me of a bunny so i can get where he's coming from with that.

"you're jungwoo." jaemin pointed at him.

jungwoo gave a light smile, "aww, did yuta tell you i smile a lot or something?"

"he said that if alcoholism was a sport you'll make it to varsity," jaemin pushed his hand through his hair and laughed.

"you're johnny." jaemin looked up at my brother.

"let me guess, yuta told you i'm really tall." johnny gave yuta a death stare.

"yep."

"you're sicheng the one with the elf ear" sicheng nodded and smiled softly at him.

i sat on the side of the couch playing with a loose thread from my sweater. i was focused on it until i felt a light tap on my shoulder. it was jaemin.

"you're johnny's little brother.... uh j-" he paused for a bit trying to remember my name. he seemed embarrassed. "ji-jisung" i smiled awkwardly. why did i stutter? "jaemin." he smiled at me. there was an awkward silence between us for a minute but it felt like hours.

all nighters at sicheng's house had changed ever since we got older. sicheng didn't have to pretend to be his own mother on the phone to convince our dad to let us stay over anymore. we basically didn't even live with our dad anymore. they didn't have to bribe sicheng's friend to buy them beer anymore since sicheng was now of legal age.

"why are we watching coco again." doyoung whined from where he sat next to johnny

"we voted on coco. it lost. coco won." sicheng said.

"it didn't win you guys just want to see jaehyun cry like a little bitch." doyoung rested his head on both of his palms and rolled his eyes

"i'll fuck you up doyoung." jaehyung flicked doyoung's forehead

jaemin giggled. giggled. like a 13 year old girl gossiping with her friends.

sicheng sat there slumped into the bean bag. he forced his eyes to stay open. i smirked to myself, i was confident enough to know sicheng was going to be the first to fall asleep. but 20 minutes later yuta curled himself up next to me and used my lap as a pillow. i didn't know what to do so i sighed and started to stroke his hair.

"poor boy is exhausted." johnny looked down at the brow haired japanese boy.

"he's been working overtime?" i asked continuing to stroke the boys hair.

"hes been working non-stop shifts at his work to get a higher raise." jaemin said. he curled up next to me also.

a little after yuta was dead asleep. i stopped stroking his head and tugged on johnny's sleeve. "i think sicheng should pay for lunch tomorrow to make up for yuta." i said. johnny chugged his beer before speaking to me.

"i'll tell him in the morning." johnny said. "can winko afford that?" jungwoo asked him. i scrunched my nose at the nickname, winko.

"i'll just split the bill with him" johnny insisted. "but dad will get mad." i frowned my eyebrows looking at johnny. "and why would dad care?" he asked me. i looked at jungwoo. "he still sends us money you know that?" i said softly to johnny. johnny nodded but he didn't give me an answer we just continued to watch the movie and let it be. it was his money either way.

"and here comes the part where jaehyun starts crying like a bitch." doyoung said. his voice was muffled since half of his face was dug into a pillow. jaehyun slapped doyoung on the arm and doyoung did this i'm-sorry-but-not-really laugh.

before the movie can even end everyone was asleep. soft snores filled the room backed up by the movie. i moved steadily to stand up to make sure i didn't wake up yuta.

i walked up the stairs of the basement to go to the kitchen. i cringed each time the stair would creek. i held my breath going up stairs hoping nobody would wake up.

i dug through the fridge looking for something to eat. i didn't really eat anything earlier. i wasn't feeling it. 

"hey." a voice said behind me. i jumped and slammed the fridge door close. it was just jaemin. 

"you fucking scared me." i put the can of whipped cream on the table and put my hand over my heart.

"oh, i'm sorry for scaring you." he put his hand on my shoulder. his voice was groggy i probably woke him up coming up here. 

"no it's alright" i said i brushed his hand off me.

for about two minutes it was just awkward silence. we didn't know what to say to each other so i made it my opportunity to ask him something.

"so jaemin," i started i put some whipped cream on my finger. "hm?" he replied as he scrolled through his phone. "what's yuta to you is he like your cousin, step brother, or boyfriend?" he shot up "what? oh no no no no no no no" he laughed awkwardly and shook his hands. "we're not that definitely not that. absolutely not." he continued. 

"then what are you guys?" i asked again.

"we're roommates" jaemin said. 

"oh aren't you 17?" i asked and he nodded at me.

"why did you move out of your house so young?" this boy interested me. i wanted to know more about him.

"i can ask you the same." jaemin sat across from me on the kitchen table. it was silent again i didn't know what to say or do. did any of us want to share our stories?

i decided to go since i didn't want to make this awkward for any of us.

"i didn't really move out. it's more like i just tagged along with my brother. you see, in my house it was just me, my dad, and johnny. my dad was hardly home so it was just me and my brother and he basically looked after me and did everything for me our dad would just give us allowance. johnny also got a job at my dads company so it was just me by myself i hated it and it sucked because i can't be independent." the whole time i didn't look at jaemin but i can tell he made a face of sympathy. i stared at the can of whipped cream and began shaking it. 

"jisung look, it's ok to not be independent. we're teenagers we basically still need to be dependent on our parents. we can't grow up quickly you know?" i nodded in response.

"what i'm trying to say is that if we grow up quick we'll end up fucked up." 

"yeah i got that the first time"

"alright," jaemin got up from the stool in the kitchen. "i'm going to bed now are you gonna come?" he turned to me his hand was on the knob of the door. "i'll stay here for a bit longer." i said putting the whipped cream can back in the fridge.

"ok goodnight jisung." jaemin left the kitchen before i can say goodnight back.

**Author's Note:**

> ard idk what to put here tbh


End file.
